The truth about looking elegant

Looking elegant on a dime is not impossible.It simply requires a little thought.Looking elegant is slightly different than
looking sexy and certainly not the same as looking trampy.The Jersey girls have made a name for
themselves.Loud, tattooed,
rambunctious, is being sold to us as fun.It's a crazy new interpretation for "keeping it real," or being "true to
yourself."The trouble is, if you have
to act that hard to be "real" you're not for real, ironically, you're just
acting badly.Elegant people have
manners.There is a reason for
manners.Manners make other people feel
comfortable,equate "manners" with being
gracious.Just having a lot of money
does not make a person have manners.Being
cold, or snooty or cliquish, is not having manners.

Being gracious means you smile and say hello when introduced
to someone new.Hold out your hand for a
firm handshake.Make eye contact when
you smile.If you have something nice to
say, say it!Who ever felt bad when you
mentioned you liked the last piece they wrote, or were impressed by a project
at the office?It's not fake if you mean
it.If you don't have anything nice to
say, you are not required to say it.Kanye West really didn't have to interrupt the music award last year to "keep
it real." His comment was rude, uncalled for, and mean spirited.He is entitled to his own opinion, that was
not the time nor place to express it.He
was capitalizing on the camera to gain notoriety. That isn't elegant.That's awful.

Being elegant means you don't have to make grand gestures
about your financial status.You can
wear well made well fitting clothes without splashing the designer's name
across your chest.Quite frankly they
ought to be paying you to advertise if the designer's name is anywhere except
in the inside label.So don't think a
knock of Gucci bag is more elegant than a well made plain leather bag, it's
not.Being elegant means your clothes are
classic cuts of subdued or interesting colors.It isn't elegant to wear huge rocks of CZ's.Buy a tastefully set diamond.Wear a necklace that matches the neckline of
your top, earring that match necklace and a bracelet of the same metal. Don't clash gold and silver.Platinum and silver at least look the same
color.For a solid color outfit a bold
chunky necklace looks elegant. With a print fabric too much jewelry looks "busy"
and not classy.

If you have a slender figure fitted clothes look nice.If you are big though, clothes that are too
tight look very unattractive.Bursting
out of your clothes looks cheap, even if the clothes themselves are designer
and expensive.Super low cut jeans that
expose the strings of your thong don't look good on anyone, even slender
girls.When the models on the cat walk
show them they look alright because the models are standing up. When a person
in hip riding jeans bends over or sits in a chair the entire butt is exposed
and it's super unattractive, frankly it's lewd.

IF you have a tattoo, consider it when you put on
clothes.It's wonderful to have a very
ornate chest tattoo, but if you dress or shirt covers half of it, it may look odd.Tattoos on the back are even more important
to think about because everyone can see them but you.Either cover it completely or expose it
completely.Wear clothes that don't clash
with the tattoo colors, or get monochromatic tattoos.Run down heels are another thing that are
very noticeable to everyone but you.You
grab a quick once over in the full length mirror and you don't think about
it.IF you can, find a way to get a two
way or three sided mirror into your house so you can observe all angles.There's a reason "down at the heels" is a
negative connotation.It's not elegant.

An elegant look is made up of quality pieces.Invest in the nicest things you can
comfortably afford to buy.Don't buy
over your income, stressing over your creditors is not elegant. If you can't
outfit your house with Christian Dior or Laura Ashley, then consider putting
fresh flowers on the table.They look
nice, liven up any room and smell better than chemical air fresheners.

Elegant is as elegant does, don't yell and scream when
lowering your voice will get people to pay attention.Don't compete, be yourself.You have nothing to prove.Clothing that you like that fits you well
will look so much better and last so many more seasons than anything "in-style"
because a magazine said so.In fact give
up fashion magazines altogether.They
don't know what's elegant.They only
know what's selling now.Be the
thermostat not the thermometer.

IF you want to be elegant feed your mind.If you must read magazines, read ones that
teach you something.IF you like to
knit, or bead, or ride motorcycles or build old cars they have magazines now in
every genre.If you like politics or
religion find good unbiased sources.Quite frankly a lot of the news magazines on the stands today, even
newspapers have gone the way of fashion magazines.The fluff pieces on famous people dominate
the pages.Read National Geographic, at
least for the pictures if you don't know what else to read.It will give you topics of conversation at
the water cooler that are more interesting that who wore what to the latest
reality tv show awards.